News

conference: lunch bytes - thinking about art + digital culture

A project by Goethe Institut, curated by Melanie Bühler.

20 +21 March 2015

Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin.

Lunch Bytes examines the consequences of the increasing ubiquity of digital technologues in the art world by addressing the role of the internet in artistic practice from a wide range of perspectives. The series consists of events, each dedicated to a different topic and bringing together artists, media scholars, designers, curators and intellectuals. The conference marks the conclusion of the discussion series.

launch of new project website: Giving What You Don't Have

January 2015, Berlin

The project Giving What You Don't Have has been going for a while and finally has its new home, including transcripts of the interviews, introductions to the projects, a blog for critical reflection around art + commons and supporting material. Thanks to all who have been and will be involved including Oliver Lerone Schultz, Katja Reise and Lucas Battich!

workshop: Commoning the Networks: A feminist Methodology II

Transmediale – Festival for media art and digital culture

31 January 2015, Saturday all day

Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin

Centre for Contemporary Arts 350 Sauchiehall Street Glasgow G2 3JD

Centre for Contemporary Arts 350 Sauchiehall Street Glasgow G2 3JD

Centre for Contemporary Arts 350 Sauchiehall Street Glasgow G2 Open hands-on workshop. How could we undertake a process of ‘commoning the networks’ to co-create and share knowledge, as a form of resistance against the neoliberal understanding of productive labour?Open hands-on workshop. How could we undertake a process of ‘commoning the networks’ to co-create and share knowledge, as a form of resistance against the neoliberal understanding of productive labour

Open hands-on workshop. How could we undertake a process of ‘commoning the networks’ to co-create and share knowledge, as a form of resistance against the neoliberal understanding of productive labour?

This Lunch Bytes event dis­cusses how we in­ter­act with in­for­ma­tion today – how our abil­ity to learn has been af­fected by dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies and how ed­u­ca­tion in the arts is being re­shaped and re­mod­eled by trans­form­ing tech­no­log­i­cal in­fra­struc­tures.

Discussion on educational issues based on personal experience in various locations. The discussion of the 'Location' theme will be initiated by Bradley Moody (UAE), Lynn Hughes (CAN), Cornelia Sollfrank (UK/DE), Deborah Lawler-Dormer (NZ) and Tracey Bentson (AUS), Chadi Salama (EG).

conference: Art in the Age of Networks

ISEA 2014 – International Symposium on Electronic Art

4 November 2014, Tuesday, 2pm

Zayed University Dubai

Cornelia Sollfrank hosts a panel discussion on Art in the Age of Networks. The panel will introduce a variety of artistic strategies for dealing with the cultural, social and technological conditions of the networked society.

Contributions by Felix Stalder, Sarah Cook and Cornelia Sollfrank.

conference+exhibition: public library. Rethinking the Infrastructures of Knowledge Production

October 30 – November 2, 2014A conference about today’s conditions of knowledge production: from the neoliberal politics of education and the monopolization of “intellectual property” to alternative critical and anarchistic ways of sharing and “borrowing” knowledge.

exhibition: Coded After Ada Lovelac

The exhibition, named after Ada Lovelace, who is credited as being the first computer programmer, acknowledges the role of women, past and present working at the forefront of art and technology. Pixels, compression, malleability of photographic objects and 3D renderings are some of the technological development artists have embraced to creatively experiment with the possibilities of the medium. In responding to the central role science and technological research plays in contemporary culture they have driven innovative processes and techniques, pushing the boundaries of art.

publication: generation remix

This new book "Generation Remix" has just been published (12 August 2014) by Berlin-based organisation iRights, namely Valie Djordjevic and Leonhard Dobusch and it contains - amongst many other interesting texts and interviews – my text 'Originale und andere unethische Autorenschaften in der Kunst' (Originals and other unethical forms of authorship in the arts).

discussion event: the future of theory 3 - digital futures

As online platforms increasingly dominate publishing, distribution and research, what impact does this have on theory? A debate on how theory changes within the digital landscape featuring critical theorist Gary Hall and artist and theorist Cornelia Sollfrank.

Thursday 12 June 2014, 7-9pm

In collaboration with the Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture, University of Westminster and University for the Creative Arts.

performance: tonight:-) by synsmaskinen

SYNSMASKINEN: A group of artists and thinkers are invited to collaborate on establishing an ‘abstract machine’. This machine treats the contents at hand and produces a new performance. TONIGHT:-) is a collective machine including various text-passages, a lecture, live internet commentary feed, sound and movement. (Read more).

Friday May 23rd from 16-20 (CET).

Bergen Academy of Fine Art, Rom8. Rom8 is a conduit for development, discussion and presentation of artistic research at Bergen Academy of Art and Design.

publication: red art. New Utopias in Data Capitalism

New issue of Leonardo Electronic Almanach "Red Art" includes a text co-authored by Cornelia Sollfrank, Rahel Puffert and Michel Chevalier.

"THE THING Hamburg. A Temporary Democratization of the Local Art Field" describes, analyses and contextualizes the 'THE THING Hamburg', a collective experimental Internet platform which was active between 2006 and 2009.

workshop: taking care of things

15 – 18 January 2014

Postmedia Lab, Leuphana University Lüneburg

in collaboration with Stadtarchiv Lüneburg.

'Taking Care of Things!' focuses on the transformation of things – analog and digital – into life-cycles and specific practices of care. This will be done in different thematic groups dealing with topics, like Mesh Media!, Civil Archaeology, Measure Drones, Unearthing the Archive, Translating Ontologies and Extinction in Context.

presentation: active and passive love of books

Saturday 7 December 2013, 11am-1pm

Library of Birmingham, Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham

PRESENTATION + DISCUSSION

This panel brings together artists Eva Weinmayr and Andrea Francke, creators of the Piracy Project, with Dr Cornelia Sollfrank. The speakers will explore the political and social implications of cultural piracy through examples from The Piracy Project collection.

screening&discussion: Giving What You Don't Have

Cornelia Sollfrank will present her latest project Giving What You Don't Have. It features interviews with individuals Kenneth Goldsmith, Marcell Mars, Sean Dockray, Dmitry Kleiner, discussing with Sollfrank their projects and ideas on peer-to-peer production and distribution as art practice. It includes the projects ubu.com or aaaaarg.org, which combine social, technical and aesthetic innovation; they promote open access to information and knowledge and make creative contributions to the advancement and the reinvention of the idea of the commons.

The post-screening discussion will be led by Cornelia Sollfrank, Joss Hands & Rachel Baker.

Drawing in equal measure on Guy Debord and Gilles Deleuze, A Hacker Manifesto offers a systematic restatement of Marxist thought for the age of cyberspace and globalization. In the widespread revolt against commodified information, McKenzie Wark sees a utopian promise, beyond the property form, and a new progressive class, the hacker class, who voice a shared interest in a new information commons.

publication: culture machine vol. 14

The massive issue includes amongst a range of very good articles on the topic of networks & politics two of the interviews I have conducted within my current research Giving What You Don't Have.

exhibition: re.act feminism #2 – a performing archive

Performance art of the 1960s and 70s today

Akademie der Künste Berlin, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin

Opening: Friday, 18 June 2013 at 7pm

re.act.feminism #2 presents feminist, gendercritical and queer performance art by over 120 artists and artist collectives from the 1960s to the beginning of the 1980s, as well as contemporary positions. The research focus is on Eastern and Western Europe, the Mediterranean and Middle East, the US and several countries in Latin America. On its route through Europe this temporary archive will continue to expand through local research and cooperation with art academies and universities. It will also be ‘animated’ through exhibitions, screenings, performances and discussions along the way, which will continuously contribute to the archive.

The web page is designed as a research tool providing information about all artists and activities in short summaries, pictures, texts and tags. It will continue to grow in sync with the ongoing exhibition and archive programme.

workshop: In Dialogue with the Flusser Archive

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design , Dundee

Thursday 16 May 2013, 10.00 – 17.00

The workshop will be based on a format developed by the MetafluxLab: The Flusserian Philosophical Flux (FPF). The FPF is a dialogic exploration of contemporary philosophical concepts inspired by the work of Vilém Flusser. Workshop led by Metaflux Lab (Claudia Becker and Rodrigo Maltez Novaes), organised by Dr. Cornelia Sollfrank

review: Active Archives

Cornelia Sollfrank wrote a review of an event she attended at documenta13. It's about the online archive in progress of the work of Finnish media art pioneer Errki Kurenniemi published in the German weekly newspaper Der Freitag, partner of The Guardian:

talk: Giving What You Don't Have

exhibition: Tools of Distorted Creativity

transmediale 2013, Berlin

Haus der Kulturen der Welt

Opening: Tuesday, 29 January 2013, 19:00

Through a selection of 13 artists, Tools of Distorted Creativity questions the notion of creativity that has been instrumental to the development of the personal computer, from its first stationary instantiations in the 1980s to today’s mobile devices.

panel discussion: what was the user

transmediale 2013, Berlin

Haus der Kulturen der Welt

Thursday, 31 January 2013, 15:00

By openly asking what the user was, rather than attempting to define what s/he is, this panel looks beyond current trends in user culture in an attempt to reimagine the user as continuous potential both vulnerable to exploitation and a visionary force of invention.

exhibition & symposium: Curated by Law

The symposium »Curated by Law«, within the art, science & business program of the Akademie Schloss Solitude, opens up a stage for dialog between art and law. The symposium is designed to help artists improve their knowledge of legal frameworks and to offer jurists insight into artistic practice. It provides the opportunity to discuss the above-mentioned crucial issues, such as the legal limits of artistic expression, the dangers of derivative work, and the moral rights of the author. The audience is strongly invited to participate in the discussion.

exhibition: re.act feminism #2 – a performing archive

Performance art of the 1960s and 70s today

Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona, Spain.

Opening: Thursday, 15 November 2012 at 7:30pm

During its stay at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies, the archive will be accompanied by a series of lectures & talks initiated in collaboration with Centre de Cultura de Dones Francesca Bonnemaison, the Goethe-Institut Barcelona, the Mercat de les Flors. Irregular Section and the Càtedra d’Art i Cultura Contemporanis de la Universitat de Girona, among others. An Activity Space for educational and research activities in the form of workshops, screenings and presentations will allow the audience to further engage in current questions on performance art and feminism.

Several artists and the curators Bettina Knaup and Beatrice Ellen Stammer will be present!

exhibition: Sound Art. Sound as a Medium of Art

The exhibition "Sound Art. Sound as a Medium of Art" presents for the first time the development of sound art in the 21th century. From Futurism to Fluxus, through to Twitter sonifications, the ZKM charts the history of Sound Art. However, focus is placed on contemporary practices: with works from 90 artists from which approximately 30 new productions from recent years will be represented, the visitor gains insights into the unique sound cosmos of contemporary art. The sound world visualizes its own exhibition architecture, and the exhibition visitor himself becomes the generator of sounds.

talk: originalität und déjà-vu

Hochschule Luzern, Design&Kunst (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts)

Sentimatt/Dammstrasse 16003 Luzern

exhibition: MEGACOOL 4.0 - Jugend und Kunst (Youth and Art)

Künstlerhaus, Wien (Vienna), Austria15 June – 7 October 2012

"MEGACOOL 4.0 - Youth and Art" presents photographs, interactive installations, video art, paintings, street art and sculptures made by visual artists from across Europe, Russia, China and the USA. The exhibition is supplemented by objects and everyday items from Jugendkulturarchiv Frankfurt and a focus on young art from Vienna (incl. an installation developed by wienxtra-medienzentrum in collaboration with youngsters). The exhibition includes the video Le chien ne va plus by Cornelia Sollfrank.

talk: net.art generator: generating art and conflict

workshop: research training 'interview'

The research training module 'interview' gives an overview of the different uses of interview techniques and designs, depending on the particular contexts. The focus will be on the possible uses of the interview format within the art research context. Besides the theoretical overview, there will be practical/technical training along with presentations of examples. The participants are asked to bring along their own interviews or prepare relevant material that can be discussed and further developed within the workshop.

Knowledge Leaks offers research training modules specializing in the needs of art and design researchers. Each of the two-day workshops is run by at least two experienced professionals of different disciplinary backgrounds, and focuses on a different subject matter, starting with a general overview of research methods.

workshop: research training 'interview'

The research training module 'interview' gives an overview of the different uses of interview techniques and designs, depending on the particular contexts. The focus will be on the possible uses of the interview format within the art research context. Besides the theoretical overview, there will be practical/technical training along with presentations of examples. The participants are asked to bring along their own interviews or prepare relevant material that can be discussed and further developed within the workshop.

Knowledge Leaks offers research training modules specializing in the needs of art and design researchers. Each of the two-day workshops is run by at least two experienced professionals of different disciplinary backgrounds, and focuses on a different subject matter, starting with a general overview of research methods.

lecture: Performing the Paradoxes of Intellectual Property

Presentation of Sollfrank's PhD thesis that explores the paradoxes of intellectual property from a practicing artistic perspective. The thesis is the outcome of a practice-led interdisciplinary research that was conducted as a response to an act of copyright-related censorship.

exhibition: This is not by me

Visual Research Centre, Dundee University.

152, Nethergate, DUNDEE @ Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA)

13-15 January, 2012. Opening Friday 13th, 5pm.

The research exposition accompanies the defence of the PhD thesis "Performing the Paradoxes of Intellectual Property" submitted in November 2011 for the fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of doctor of philosophy.

The workshop addresses the theme of the transmediale festival (in/compatible), primarily addressing incompatible interfaces, incompatible methods, and incompatible markets. Prior to the workshop, selected participants will upload and comment papers openly on a blog. The outcome of the process will be published in a transmediale thematic publication and presented as part of the programme of the festival in 2012.

exhibition: the art of hacking

‘The art of Hacking’ focuses on the artistic side of hacking. The artists in this exhibition highlight the imperfections of our surroundings and daily lives. The projects subvert, improve on or circumnavigate ‘official’ systems and practices and offer alternatives.

panel discussion: Copy Culture

in cooperation with the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 12 - 2 pm

Kicking off the series is an event centered on questions about copyright and authorship. What does ‘copyright’ mean in today's context and how does it affect artistic practice? Is it an outdated legal construct that cannot adequately deal with the internet as a playground of free floating artistic content? Does it still make sense to link a work exclusively to its producer and an original idea when web content is constantly changing in an age in which an increasing number of people upload, distribute and modify films, images and text? What is the role of the artist in this new setting?

workshop: research training 'interview'

Knowledge Leaks offers research training modules specializing in the needs of art and design researchers. Each of the two-day workshops is run by at least two experienced professionals of different disciplinary backgrounds, and focuses on a different subject matter, starting with a general overview of research methods.

The training module 'interview' gives an overview of the different uses of interview techniques and designs, depending on the particular contexts. The focus will be on the possible uses of the interview format within the art research context. Besides the theoretical overview, there will be practical/technical training along with presentations of examples. The participants are asked to bring along their own interviews or prepare relevant material that can be discussed and further developed within the workshop.

publication: an-academy

The new issue of TRANSVERSAL - the multi-lingual webjournal of eipcp (european institute for progressive cultural policiesis) is titled "an-academy" and includes contributions by Tom Holert, Dan S. Wang, Lina Dokuzović, Eduard Freudmann, Gerald Raunig, conversations between Boris Buden and Cornelia Sollfrank, Dmitry Vilensky and David Riff, as well as a conversation between Cornelia Sollfrank and Gavin Renwick.

exhibition: culture(s) of copy

The exhibition “Culture(s) of Copy” is about the phenomenon of the copy as a global cultural strategy. The discussion of intellectual property, which could come to mind in dealing with the Asian context, is deliberately excluded, as it has already been treated in diverse ways. The copy is understood positively as a remake, a cultural translation and conversion. The phenomenon of the copy or remake is seen as an opportunity to understand and reflect on cultural differences beyond the dichotomy of east and west.

The Internet artist Cornelia Sollfrank and the de-conceptual artist and theorist Stefan Roemer will meet to engage in a staged, public conversation. First, Cornelia Sollfrank will review her own practice as a net artist and address issues resulting from her engagement with Conceptual art. Questions having to do with “genealogy” will lead to a direct overlapping with Stefan Roemer’s film and Wiki »Conceptual Paradise«, which will then serve as a starting point for a conversation on the possiblility and impossibility of updating the notion of the Conceptual.

exhibition: Dog is my co-pilot

Dog Is my co-pilot uses the theme of dogs as an excuse to present a series of works that actually rather deals with the human psyche and perception than with dogs. The works have in common that dogs figure in them all somehow or other. Besides forming a thematic structure, the choice of works represents a wide range of historical perspectives as well as varied experimental approaches to the media. [Read more]

exhibition: Shanghai-Hamburg (urban public) Space [SHupS]

October/November 2010, Shanghai

The exhibition forum Shanghai-Hamburg (urban public) Space addresses the issue of city development and public space in Hamburg and Shanghai presenting new artistic strategies such as "New Genre Public Art" or "Art in the Public Interest.” The artistic practices transcend the common understanding of art as representation to an understanding of art as a cultural investigation and intervention. Due to the pressure of the local authorities the opening on the 8th of October 2010 had to be cancelled and the exhibition could not take place as originally planed. As a response to the prohibition, the website is converted into an alternative exhibition space to document the urban interventions and to offer a download section—the URBAN TOOLBOX. Sound-documents and posters and postcards can be downloaded for further usage, distribution and dispersed interventions.

exhibition: culture(s) of copy

22 June extended until 15 August 2010. Presented by Goethe-Institut Hongkong and Edith Russ Site for Media Art in collaboration with Hong Kong Film Archive

The exhibition “Culture(s) of Copy” is about the phenomenon of the copy as a global cultural strategy. The discussion of intellectual property, which could come to mind in dealing with the Asian context, is deliberately excluded, as it has already been treated in diverse ways. The copy is understood positively as a remake, a cultural translation and conversion. The phenomenon of the copy or remake is seen as an opportunity to understand and reflect on cultural differences beyond the dichotomy of east and west.

screening: cease & desist art: yes, this is illegal!

Cease & Desist Art by Simono Lodi: For some years now, it has become common among digital artists to focus on illegal art practices. Countless Cease & Desist letters have been sent out by companies to pirates, plagiarists, hackers and disturbers, which are shown off as trophies in exhibitions, web communities and mailing lists. Action artists promote controversial forms of art, using guerilla tactics to protest against the fairness of copyright and intellectual property laws.

Receiving a Cease & Desist letter has become the latest badge in championing the freedom to create in the Corporation Age. Any artist interested in taking part in the movement chooses a good lawyer rather than a good gallery owner. What is happening to the future of art? What rights and freedoms are these artists championing? Does all this have something to do with the end of techno-utopias?In what way has business co-opted the values of hackers, exploiting open source initiatives, web freedom and on-line equality and sparking the use of these practices?

Book review: Expanded ORIGINAL

Expanded ORIGINAL, Hatje Cantz, 2009in: neural no. 34, page 4The work of Cornelia Sollfrank is one of the most enlightening attempts to describe the consequences of immateriality in art. She consistently points to the absolescence of concepts such as ‘original’ and ‘copyrighted’, developing a full spectrum of perspectives…

Research Project: Creating Worlds

Creating Worlds is a multi-annual research project that investigates the relationship between art production and knowledge production in the context of the transformations and crises of contemporary capitalism. Creativity becomes an ambivalent term here, “creating worlds” meaning a modulating procedure in cognitive capitalism and societies of control, but also an emerging political dimension of creativity as political imagination and invention of new lines of flight, new struggles, new worlds.

Creating Worlds is a project of Vienna-based European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies (eipcp), and funded by WWTF, the Vienna Science and Technology Fund. The project is a collaboration of eight artist researchers and involves research, publication and artistic projects. It will be developed in the years 2009 to 2012.

Exhibition: Old News at CCA Lagos

CCA Lagos is the first African contemporary art venue to host the full version of the Old News Project conceived and developed by Danish curator Jacob Fabricius. Old News #1, #2,#3, #4,#5 solo by Jens Haaning and #6 Lagos-Malmo featuring 62 artist based in Lagos and Malmo.

Lecture: The Reflective Turn

Lecture by Cornelia Sollfrank

Facultad de Bellas Artes Universitat de Barcelona, Pau Gargallo 4

20 October 2009, 4-7pm, Sala de Actos

Cornelia Sollfrank frames the context of artistic research, gives an overview of different national programmes, as well as ideological constructions of art and research; she discusses paramaters of the discourse such as concepts of knowledge, the (alledegly) different epistemologies of art and sciene, speaks about notions of 'process' and the seemingly problematic relationship of theory and practice. Starting point and continuous reference for her approach to artistc research are her own experiences as artist researcher.

Exhibition: Tamm-Tamm in Hungary

I am pleased to announce that our project "TammTamm - Künstler informieren Politiker" (Artists informing Politicians)” will be part of the exhibition “Agents & Provocateurs“. In 2005 the initiative brought together 121 Hamburg-based artists who struggled against the state-funded (30 mio euro) private militaria museum owned by a well-known right-wing media mogul, Peter Tamm, in Hamburg’s HafenCity. The museum has been realised despite of our protest and is called now International Maritime Museum. [more…]

book review: expanded ORIGINAL

Expanded ORIGINAL, Hatje Cantz, 2009

By: Susana Zaragoza

in: Masters of Media, Univeristy of Amsterdam

German artist Cornelia Sollfrank’s career has been linked to hacking, conceptual art, cyberfeminism and net.art. Since the nineties, she examines the digital cultural techniques of copying and the machine-supported production in order to question the traditional models of authorship through methods like appropriation, repetition or plagiarism...

Performance: TroubleShooting

Live Performance by Cornelia SollfrankOpening of 're.act feminism': 12 December 2008, 7 pm

Akademie der Künste Berlin, Hanseatenweg

In her action TroubleShooting, the German artist Cornelia Sollfrank takes up the almost forgotten shooting actions by Niki de Saint Phalle–who is known today mainly for her Nanas–and repeats it. Sollfrank who has had an interest in firearms for many years, and who has gleaned a vast collection of images of women with guns, used the repetition of this performance as an opportunity to finally learn shooting herself ...

Exhibition: Originale und andere Fälschungen

Solo-exhibition by Cornelia Sollfrank

Edith Russ Site for Media Art

24 January – 19 April 2009

The exbition is a continuation of the project MuseumShop (2007) and centres on the question of "intellectual property" as related to art works that are public property. It is part to reflect the whole process of commodificiation of art works, including their reproduction and distribution.

workshop: processing the copy – sharing strategies

In a 2-day workshop German net.artist and cyberfeminist Cornelia Sollfrank introduces theoretical and practical approaches to the deconstruction and re-invention of authorship.

Exhibition: Anna Kournikova Deleted By Memeright Trusted System

Art in the Age of Intellectual Property

PHOENIX Halle Dortmund, July 19 - October 19, 2008

presented by Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV), Dortmund.

The exhibition is part of the project "Work 2.0 – Copyright and Creative Work in the Digital Age". In the framework of "Work 2.0", HMKV – together with the Berlin-based collaborative partner iRights.info/mikro e.V. – explores the relationships between creative work, intellectual property law, and technology.

Exhibition: Art Machines – Machine Art

Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt: 18 October 2007 – 27 January 2008

Museum Tinguely, Basel, CH: 5 March – 29 June, 2008

In general we presume that artists make art, but what happens when machines produce art? Do artists then become engineers? What does the apparent withdrawal of the artist from the creative act mean, and what consequences for the originality and the uniqueness of the work of art result from it? What is a work of art in the first place in such cases: the machine, the product, or the act of production? What role is granted the viewer in the course of production: interaction or exclusion?

exhibition: ACCESS – SHIFT Festival

Electronic Art Festival, Basel, CH

25 –28 October, 2007

The exhibition presents positions that throw light on this year’s festival theme, Access, from very different perspectives. Playful, sensual and ironic means of access stand alongside intellectual, conceptual and also political or action-oriented interpretations. Older works demonstrate this issue’s long, important history and younger works its unabated relevance today.Further projects will take place outdoors on the festival site and throughout the city.